CNSE's Kaloyeros on encores and touchdowns

It’s been quite a month at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.

On May 3, CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley featured CNSE.

After that show aired, CNSE’s chief executive, Alain Kaloyeros, received a call asking, in essence, how are you going to top that?

Not long after that call, the phone rang again, this time with news that President Barack Obama wanted to take a tour and make a speech.

Another encore moment. Kaloyeros is getting used to it.

Kaloyeros said hosting a successful presidential event also bodes well for the college’s relationship with the White House. That could turn into a partnership with a federal entity.

“It’s important in terms of credibility,” Kaloyeros said. “The fact that we delivered an event in two-and-a-half days and did it so professionally has got to tell the White House that in New York, we know what we’re doing.”

One tenant Kaloyeros would like to land at CNSE is the Department of Defense. The work on future computer chips is important to the DoD, and so is having a reliable domestic supplier.

“They need a secure source in the U.S.—from soup to nuts, from innovation to production,” he said. “This sets the stage for it.”